"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Monday, August 14, 2006

Raul Castro: Cocaine Connection?

By Brian Ross And Vic Walter

Aug 14, 2006 9:55am

Federal prosecutors in Miami were prepared to indict Raul Castro
as the head of a major cocaine smuggling conspiracy in 1993, but the
Clinton Administration Justice Department overruled them, current and
former Justice Department officials tell ABC News.

The officials say
Castro, as Cuban Defense Minister, permitted Colombian drug lords to pay
for the use of Cuban waters and airstrips as staging grounds for
smuggling runs into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s. "It
was a major investigation involving numerous witnesses that was killed
at the highest levels in Washington," said a former Justice Department
official with direct knowledge of the case. "There were numerous
national security and intelligence issues that would have made the case
difficult," said Tom Cash, the former head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration office in Miami.

Convicted Colombian drug boss Carlos
Lehder of the Medellin cartel testified in a 1991 federal trial that he
met twice in Havana with Raul Castro to arrange safe passage for cocaine
flights over Cuban airspace. The draft indictment, as described by a
former Justice Department official who saw it, listed Raul Castro as the
leader of a conspiracy involved in smuggling seven and a half tons of
cocaine into the United States over a 10-year period. At least a dozen
other Cubans were also to be indicted.

In 1989, a top Cuban General,
Arnoldo Ochoa, was convicted by a Cuban court and ordered executed with
three other military officers for their roles in drug smuggling. Cuban
waters continue to be used by drug smugglers, according to federal law
enforcement officials. "The smugglers know that the U.S. Coast Guard
can’t go after them in Cuban waters," one official said. There was no
immediate comment from the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, D.C.
In the past, Fidel Castro has denied that his country or his brother had
any role in protecting drug smugglers.